Electric railway



(NowModeL) E; M. BENTLEY.

ELECTRIC RAILWAY.

No. 343,101. Patented June 1, 1886.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDYVARD M. BENTLEY, OF BROOKLYN, NEV YORK.

ELECTRIC RAl LWAY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 343,101, dated June 1, 1886.

Serial No. 171,200. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern/.-

Be it known that I, EDWARD M. BENTLEY, a citizen of the United States and a resident of Brooklyn, New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements i 11 Electric Railways, of which the following is a specification.

My invention consists in insulating a section of the main conductor of an electric railway at a point where the railway crosses a road, and providing automatic circuit-closers by which the said section is thrown into electrical connection with the main conductor whenever an electric locomotive is passing over it.

In the accompanying drawings, R represents the rails of an ordinary railway. R represents a road crossing the same.

A A represent the two conductors which carry the main supply of current for the propulsion of vehicles upon the railway. These two conductors are normally in the circuit; but the sections a a at the crossing are normally out of circuit, the current being carried around them by means of bridge-wires B B.

M M are two electro-magnets at the two sides of the road or highway crossing the railwaytrack, which act as circuit-closers to connect the sections a a in circuit whenever a locomotive approaches.

L represents an electric locomotive, c c being the two contacts by which the current passes from the conductor A through the motor upon the locomotive to the opposite conductor, A.

As the locomotive, moving in the direction of arrow k, approaches the crossing the contact 0 comes onto the short insulated section b of the main negative conductor A. The current will then pass from A, by contact 0, through the motor, to contact 0, to section 1), wire d, magnet M, wire (1, to the negative conductor. The magnet M, being thus energized, attracts its two armatures, N and N, and these two armatures close the circuit between the sections a a and the main conductors A A. The section a is connected with A by means of the wires 0 f d, magnet M, and wire (1, so that when the contact 0 passes from section 1) onto section a the magnet M remains energized and keeps a in circuit while the locomotive is pass ing over the crossin \Vhen the locomotive has reached the ends of sections a a, the contacts 0 c then pass off onto the main conductor A and the short section b, respectively. The circuit may then be traced from A, by contact 5 5 0, through the motor, to contact 0, to section I), magnet M, to conductor A. This will energize the magnet M, but only momentarily, for when the contact 0 passes from b to A the current passes directly from A through the motor to A, and both the magnets M and M are short-circuited, drop their armatures, and leave the sections a a insulated, as at first. When the locomotive is comingfrom the opposite direction, the same action will take place, the magnet M being energized first. By means of this arrangement wherever it is desirable that the main conductors of an electric railway should be rendered perfectly harmless to men or animals likely to pass over them or come in contact with them in any way, the said conductors are at that point entirely insulated from the main source of current, except at the instant when a locomotive or train is passing over that point, although elsewhere 7 5 along the line the main conductors are normally in circuit.

It will be readily seen that the armatures N may be omitted and the cutout be made to act upon one conductor only, the other conductor being continued through uninterruptedly.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is 1. The combination, in an electric railway, S5 of a main conductor normally in circuit, a sec tion thereof normally out of circuit, a bridging conductor around said section, a circuit-closer between the section and the main conductor, and means for automaticallyoperating the ciro cuit-closer upon the approach of a locomotive.

2. The combination of the main conductor normally in circuit, the insulated section in line with said conductor, but nori'na'lly out of circuit, the bridging-conductor around said 5 section, and a circuit-closer between the said section and the main conductor controlled by a passing locomotive.

3. The combination of a main conductor, an insulated section in line with said main con- I00 ductor, bridging-conductor, a circuit-closer between said main conductor and said insulated section, and means for actuating said circuit-closer while a train is passing said section.

4. The combination of a main conductor, an insulated section, a bridging-conductor,and

a circuit-closer at each end of said section, so 1 as to be actuated by a locomotive from either direction.

'5. The combination ofa main conductor normally in circuit, an insulated section and electro-lnagnet in the circuit of said main conductor, and a circuit-closer between the main coi1- duetor and the insulated section controlled by said electro-maguet.

6. The combination ofa main conductor normally in circuit, an insulated section, an eleetromagnet in the circuit of said main cou- 

